I'm so happy to post this today because it seems like it has been forever since I've had a finish to show you! This one took me awhile because I kept changing my mind about what colors I wanted to use. When it was all said and done I think I made about 40 letter/blocks, so I have almost enough for a second quilt. I want this quilt to be the one that is on my sofa everyday, so I just quilted it in a wavy line stitch, which makes it soft and drapes really well.
I used the Moda Spell it With Fabric pattern, and at one time it was available for free, but now I can't find the original posts for you, but if you want to purchase it, you can do that here.
Although I had wanted to make this quilt for a while, I was only really inspired to get started during the summer when my daughter and I were spending much of our time reading together. My daughter really struggled with reading, and did not enjoy it at all. It baffled me at first, because she is such a bright child, but it seemed like it was just never clicking for her. For her entire second grade year she went to additional tutoring every day, but not much progress was made, and her reading level was that of an early first grader. Her Lexile score (tests used to determine reading level) was at a 167 and for a beginning 3rd grader it should be at 500--so we had only a few months to get her where she needed to be. I was worrying myself to death about it. It's not that I wanted her to be the smartest kid in school, but I don't want her to lose confidence in herself if she was behind. Mostly, I just wanted her to love reading, because there's so much enjoyment to be found in books.
At the end of the school year, her teacher sent home a recommended summer reading list that were appropriate for her reading level. The list had books like "Clifford the Big Red Dog" and other books that I felt were never going to help her progress. Those books only have about 14 words in them and although they might be appropriate for her reading level, they are not suited for her age level. So I went online and started buying books that I remembered loving at her age. When the books arrived, we started slowly making our way through them. At first it was really slow, but even if we only read a half-page in 20 minutes then I was okay with that. I just wanted her to read enough to where she would fall in love with story, which I hoped would motivate her enough to keep reading. And then it happened. We where reading "The Chocolate Touch" and she thought the story was so funny she didn't want to stop reading! Chapter after chapter we just kept reading, and when I was ready to stop, she finished it on her own.
We read four chapter books over the summer--over 600 pages of words. It might not seem like a lot for some children, but for us, it was a great achievement. When it was time for her to start school again I was so nervous about her next reading-level test and kept pestering her about when they were going to take it. Then, one afternoon, a couple of weeks after school started, she called me at work and said "Mom, I took the test today and I scored a 499!". Well you can imagine, I was ecstatic, and I started crying tears of happiness, and even as I write this tears are springing into my eyes! I am just so proud of her I can hardly stand it, and this quilt will always help me remember this awesome achievement.
I must admit, I imagine her at her high school graduation, standing up at the podium to give the Valedictorian speech, and she says, "...and this would not be possible without the support and guidance of my greatest teacher--my mother."
But my fantasy about the future is broken with the sound of her saying (in real life), "Mom, can you pleeeaase microwave me some bagel bites?"
Have a great week everyone!
Linking up at My Quilt Infatuation for Needle and Thread Thursday!
